How to Write Realistic Characters

January 9, 2017

Have you ever read a book and the characters were so two-dimensional you didn’t even care what happened to them? Caring about a character is the first step to caring about a story. If you have a relatable character, then you have the main ingredient, and we are here to tell you how to do that. (Results may vary.)

Give Them Faults: No one is ever perfect, so why would you write a character that way? Make her stubborn. Make him whiny. Make her angry. Make him jealous. Give them visible faults and readers will be able to relate to them.

…Don’t Add Faults Where They Shouldn’t Be: This is the hard line to walk. You want to make your characters flawed, but make sure it fits with the character arc you have created. If you have consistency throughout a book, and then suddenly add a curve ball of crappy characteristics, you may lose the reason that character is relatable and loved.

Dialogue Should Sound Real: Sometimes dialogue is the tough part, how you reasonably make a conversation between two people who never existed? Easy, how would you react? How would a person in your life react? The dialogue should not sound stuffy, but it should not be overtly cheerful either. Don’t say: “He told her about his family tragedy and he looked at her, expectantly. ‘That’s OK, Jim,’ she giggled.” Woah, where did that giggle come from? If you want to avoid said, you can, but make it fit.

Did those tips help? Let us know, we want to continue to give you information you need to survive in the literary world.

I am immensely pleased with the work provided by Jenny Perry and Krystal Pyatt of Pypeline Editing. As a first time author, they were in constant contact with me, answering all of my questions, keeping me apprised of where we were in the process at all times, which allowed us to finish ahead of schedule. I look forward to working with them again in the future.”